A Martian Picnic

Ollie – the star of A Martian Picnic – visits Planet Merch!
We created some custom shirts for the premiere at Ashland Independent Film Festival – check out our store.

About the Film: In this stop-motion animation, a hapless Martian and his companion have an unexpected encounter during an outing to a seemingly barren asteroid – they are not alone. Whatever is out there, it wants lunch.

Ollie the Martian: Made of both sculpey oven-bake clay and regular plasticine, our star stands only 4-1/2 inches tall. The planet surface where the film's action takes place was also compact – only 2x3 feet, in order to fit into a small corner of the home studio space where filming took place over several months.

Creative Team: Animator Patrick Neary collaborated with composer John Askew (Calvin Marshall, Deadwood and Portlandia) and sound designer Jason Edwards (Grimm and Nightscape) to create the film's original score and soundtrack.

Critical Acclaim

“Martian Picnic was a huge success at our festival! Kids wanted to see it twice so we played it again after all the others. They laughed loud, jumped up and down by the screen and one kid kept yelling "one eyed monster, one eyed monster!" over and over!” (Skagway Film Festival)

Film Festival Selections & Schedule

February 15-17, 2013: Skagway Film Festival
February 25-March 3: Reel Fun Film Festival, Alberta, Canada
February 2013: Cinebarre Pre-Show, All theater locations in Seattle (WA), Salem (OR), CO, SC & NC
November-December 2012: Anchorage International Film Festival
October 20, 2012: Tallgrass International Film Festival
October 4-11, 2012: Tacoma Film Festival
September 8 and 15: DC Shorts Film Festival
September 1-3: 1 Reel Film Festival at Bumbershoot at the Seattle Center
August 2: Traverse City Film Festival
August 2: Tumbleweed Film Festival, Family Night at Veranda Beach, Oroville, WA
May 27: A Martian Picnic played to a full house at the Seattle International Film Festival in The Family Picture Show
April 15: Premiered at Ashland Independent Film Festival. A Martian Picnic was included in a solid line-up of short films in the festival's Family Choice Program. We took Ollie along to meet the audience, and created some fun hand-drawn t-shirt designs for the occasion.

More Cartoons: See Kinografx's first festival short film Otis v Monster (2009) – which was a finalist in Nickelodeon’s International Animation Festival competition, and a winner of the Best Regional Film award from Tacoma Film Festival.

Follow the Martian on Facebook for the latest screenings and news.